How to Use the Kite to Get Up and Ride on the Kiteboard

After getting the kiteboard on your feet, do a test dive across the top of the wind window to see how much pull you get. If you need more power, dive the kite just a little harder the second time. As the kite dives down it will begin to pull harder, when it does, respond by pointing the front of the kiteboard at the kite and rolling your weight forward to get on top of the board. Getting on top of the board, with your knees bend, and the nose of the board pointed toward the kite, are the things to focus on.

Once you are on top of the board traveling at the kite, transfer some of your weight to your back heel to steer the kiteboard "side to the wind" and away from the kite. If you don't do this you will stay traveling toward the kite, slacking the lines, and you won't be able to steer the kite back up; the kite will crash into the water, and you are back to body dragging again.

You don't have to get up with a downstroke (down wards dive of the kite), many people get there first rides from an upstroke of the kite. After your initial downstroke you will have to turn the kite back up, or it will crash into the water. The kite generates a little more power on the way down, yet the the pull is more forward and less upward than when doing the upstroke. On the upstroke the pull often lifts you right onto the board rather than having to stand up onto it, however it won't get you moving forward as much once you are up.